Richard Goldman, of Boulder, listens carefully as members of the public speak during a city council meeting regarding "right sizing" on Monday at the Municipal Building in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

A controversial plan to remove vehicle lanes to allow for wider bike lanes on four major streets in Boulder will move forward on three of them: Folsom Street, Iris Avenue and 63rd Street.

A few minutes before midnight Tuesday, after hearing hours of testimony from roughly 80 people, the City Council voted 7-2 to support the "right-sizing" plan that was developed as a pilot program within Boulder's Living Laboratory bike facilities project.

"I really think this will bring more safety for everyone," Councilwoman Mary Young said.

The pilot project will not be implemented — at least for now — on 55th Street in east Boulder, where alternative bike paths exist nearby and area businesses expressed significant concerns about the impact on traffic for workers who commute longer distances by car. They were especially concerned about the impact when trains block the street.

'Right-sizing' city streets

Boulder's "right-sizing" pilot project will narrow streets from four car lanes to one lane in each direction with a center shared turn lane and wider bike lanes. It will be implemented on the following streets:

Folsom Street between Colorado Avenue and Valmont Road, with a break between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue to preserve the double left turn lanes for Arapahoe

Weaver, who made the motion in support of the plan, said the issue was deeply personal for him, as his wife was struck on her bike by a driver making a left turn while talking on a cell phone.

Proponents of the plan believe it will reduce car accidents and make it easier for pedestrians to cross the street, as well as provide wider bike lanes and buffers for cyclists.

The hope is that people who want to ride but don't now due to safety concerns would be more likely to use their bicycles to commute or for errands if the bike lanes felt and were safer.

But Shoemaker said even if more people don't ride, the wider lanes will be safer for those who ride already, in exchange for modest traffic delays.

"There is no question that these wider bike lanes will be safer," he said. "I have countless friends who have been hit by cars. We put in traffic lights for safety all the time, and those cause longer delays."

Mayor Matt Appelbaum and Councilman George Karakehian voted no.

Karekehian thought the entire plan was deeply misguided and "an assault on common sense."

That led Shoemaker to respond, "It's an assault on common sense to not trade 12 seconds for a human life."

"We'll see if it's 12 seconds," Karakehian said.

Appelbaum wanted to try it on one street first before expanding it, and proposed Folsom as the best test case.

"We have a pretty split community, and I think we need to try something, but we need to try one thing and see if it works," he said.

Morzel spoke of her advocacy for a narrow North Broadway years ago and said she has always supported "road diets." However, she felt the issue was too contentious in a community already riven by divisions over housing policy and rapid development.

"I don't think you get community buy-in by shoving things down people's throats," she said. "I think we're doing way too much in Boulder."

However, she ultimately voted with the majority.

'Repurposing' lanes

Eleanor Needy, of Boulder, speaks with her son Will, 1, during a city council meeting regarding "right sizing" on Monday at the Municipal Building in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso / Staff Photographer)

The pilot projects will got forward on Folsom Street between Colorado Avenue and Valmont Road, with a break between Canyon Boulevard and Arapahoe Avenue to preserve the double left turn lanes for Arapahoe; on Iris Avenue between Broadway and Folsom Street; and on 63rd Street between Gunbarrel Avenue/Nautilus Drive and Lookout Road.

The project will not go forward on 55th Street between Arapahoe Avenue and Pearl Parkway as originally proposed.

City transportation planners said they chose these segments because each sees between 15,000 and 20,000 vehicles per day, has good potential as a bike corridor and a collision rate that makes some experimentation make sense.

Each street will go from four car lanes — two in each direction — to one lane in each direction with a center shared turn lane. The loss — or "repurposing" — of one vehicle lane will allow 7-foot-wide bike lanes, compared to 5 ½ feet or smaller today, and buffers ranging from 3 feet to 10 feet.

The proposal calls for the streets to be re-striped in July and August, and monitored for a year to 18 months to see the impact on travel times, bike and car accidents, and bike and car use.

Transportation planners said this style of street design conforms with current best practices and should reduce vehicle crashes as well, as the dedicated turn lane means cars won't be rear-ended while they wait to turn left and cars turning from side streets won't have to cross as many lanes of traffic.

The original designs called for removing the double left turn lanes at Iris and Broadway and Folsom and Arapahoe, but those plans would have slowed traffic by as much as three minutes during the evening rush hour.

Keeping the double-turn lanes, though, means there isn't enough room to accommodate bikes as much in the intersections. To make up for that, the city is considering extending a multi-use path that ends at Broadway and Iris several blocks east on Iris and putting a bike box at Folsom and Arapahoe to give cyclists more visibility and priority in the intersection.

The proposal was strongly supported by cycling advocates who see the plan as taking the city closer to its goals of having 30 percent of trips made by bike and encouraging less experienced cyclists to try riding on the street.

Public weighs in both sides

Adelaide Perr made a very personal case for wider bike lanes with buffers as she gave graphic details of being struck by a car while on her bike.

"If protected bike lanes prevent even one accident, they're worth it," she said, saying she continues to ride but much of the joy of it is gone, replaced with anxiety.

Becca Bracy Knight said she "loves her car," and it's her primary way of getting around town. However, her husband rides his bike from north Boulder to the University of Colorado and has to take a circuitous route that could be shortened if Folsom was safer.

"I support the right-sizing plan," she said. "It aligns with other city goals."

But many other speakers said the city already has plenty of off-street bike lanes and bike routes on low-traffic streets.

Lisa Aweida Ross, who lives near Iris Avenue, said the street is a vital east-west corridor, and reducing lanes would choke traffic.

Debra Walsh said she felt like only one voice was being heard.

"The cyclist community is large and organized and has a privileged place in Boulder discourse," she said. "They don't speak for everyone."

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